RIYADH: Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed has called on governorates to submit monthly reports and maximize an oil derivative grant provided by Saudi Arabia.
The Kingdom announced on Wednesday that the second batch of oil derivatives had arrived at the port of Mukalla in Hadramout. The 23,000 metric tons of oil derivatives will meet the demands of power plants in the southeastern province.
In order to receive the third batch, Saeed wants governorates to honor the commitments agreed upon with the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY).
The prime minister’s comments came during a meeting of the Supreme Energy Council in Yemen headed by Abdulmalik Saeed, in which he conducted a comprehensive assessment of the governorates benefiting from the grant.
During the meeting, Minister of Electricity and Energy Anwar Kalashat presented a report on the distribution of the first two batches of the oil derivatives grant provided by the Kingdom. The report also included the commitment of the beneficiary governorates to submit monthly reports detailing the reforms that have been carried out.
The first batch of the oil derivatives arrived at the Yemeni port city of Aden on May 8. The shipments are being carried out in cooperation with the Yemeni government and local authorities to operate more than 80 Yemeni power plants at a total cost of $442 million.
Yemen PM wants to maximize oil derivatives grant from Saudi Arabia
https://arab.news/5yn5p
Yemen PM wants to maximize oil derivatives grant from Saudi Arabia
- 23,000 metric tons of oil derivatives arrived Wednesday and will meet the demands of power plants in Yemen’s southeastern province
- Supreme Energy Council conducts a comprehensive assessment of the governorates benefiting from the fuel grant
Iran acting FM discusses Gaza war with Hezbollah chief
BEIRUT: Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri discussed “proposed solutions” for ending the Gaza war with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group said.
The two men “reviewed the latest regional political and security developments, especially on the Gaza and Lebanon fronts, and the proposed solutions,” a Hezbollah statement said.
US President Joe Biden outlined a three-stage roadmap toward a full ceasefire on Friday that he said was a new offer from Israel that he urged Hamas to accept.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took issue with Biden’s presentation of what was on the table, stressing that the war would continue until all of Israel’s “goals are achieved.”
Netanyahu said that included the destruction of Hamas’s capacity to govern Gaza or pose a military threat to Israel.
Bagheri arrived in Lebanon Monday on his first foreign trip since being named caretaker minister following the death of his predecessor Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash last month that also killed president Ebrahim Raisi.
At a press conference on Monday, Bagheri said the United States should halt all aid to Israel rather than propose a ceasefire.
He said he had chosen Lebanon for his first official visit “because Lebanon is the cradle of resistance” against Israel.
Bagheri was due to hold talks in Damascus later Tuesday with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad and President Bashar Assad.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency said Bagheri “talked with the leaders of the Palestinian resistance groups in Syria” at the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
UN decries ‘unfathomable’ numbers killed in West Bank since October 7
- Volker Turk: ‘The killing, destruction and widespread human rights violations are unacceptable, and must cease immediately’
- Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive have to date killed 36,550 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians
GENEVA: The UN rights chief demanded Tuesday an end to surging violence in the occupied West Bank, saying it was “unfathomable” that more than 500 Palestinians had been killed there since October 7.
Volker Turk said at least 505 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank by the Israeli military and by West Bank settlers since the war in nearby Gaza erupted nearly eight months ago.
Palestinian officials have given a toll of at least 523.
Two dozen Israelies, including eight soldiers, have also been killed in West Bank clashes or alleged attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank during the same period, he said.
“As if the tragic events in Israel and then Gaza over the past eight months were not enough, the people of the occupied West Bank are also being subjected to day-after-day of unprecedented bloodshed,” he said in a statement.
“It is unfathomable that so many lives have been taken in such a wanton fashion.”
Turk insisted “the killing, destruction and widespread human rights violations are unacceptable, and must cease immediately.”
“Israel must not only adopt but enforce rules of engagement that are fully in line with applicable human rights norms and standards,” he said, demanding accountability for all alleged unlawful killings.
Turk decried the “pervasive impunity for such crimes” in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and which had seen a surge in violence even before October 7.
He pointed to a case over the weekend in which Israeli forces shot dead a teenager and critically injured another who later died near the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp near Jericho in the West Bank.
He said CCTV footage indicated that the boys were shot at a distance of 70 meters while running away after throwing stones and/or Molotov cocktails toward a military post.
Turk’s statement said that the Israeli military had often used lethal force “as a first resort against Palestinian protesters ... in cases where those shot clearly did not represent an imminent threat to life.”
Turk warned that the violence “against the backdrop of the scale of killing and destruction continuing in Gaza, have instilled fear and insecurity among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.”
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive have to date killed 36,550 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Iran vows response if UN nuclear watchdog approves censure
- Britain, France and Germany submit draft resolution condemning Iran for its failure to fully cooperate with the watchdog and demanding more accountability
TEHRAN: Iran threatened to respond Tuesday if the UN nuclear watchdog approves a new censure resolution proposed by three European governments despite the opposition of the United States, Iranian media reported.
“In case of issuing a resolution against Iran in the board of governors and political pressure from the parties, Iran will respond according to the announcement it made to them,” the Fars news agency quoted Iran’s atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami as saying.
Britain, France and Germany submitted a draft resolution to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board on Monday, condemning Iran for its failure to fully cooperate with the watchdog and demanding more accountability.
At the last IAEA board meeting in March, European powers shelved their plans to confront Iran due to a lack of US support.
The United States denies it is hampering European efforts to hold Iran accountable but fears a censure could aggravate Middle East tensions ahead of a US presidential election in November, diplomats say.
Tensions have soared since Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel last October triggering war in Gaza.
In April, an Israeli air strike on Iran’s Damascus consulate killed seven Revolutionary Guards, prompting Iran to carry out its first ever direct attack on Israel, a barrage of rockets and missiles most of which were intercepted.
The IAEA board has not passed a resolution criticizing the Islamic republic since November 2022, when Iran responded by stepping up its enrichment of uranium.
Iran suspended its compliance with caps on its nuclear activities set by a landmark 2015 deal with major powers after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions.
Eslami said based on the deal “if the other parties do not return to their commitments, Iran has the right to reciprocally reduce its obligations, and now the country is in the phase of reducing them.”
Tensions between Iran and the IAEA have flared repeatedly since the deal fell apart, and EU-brokered efforts to bring Washington back on board have so far failed.
Two pilots killed in Turkiye military training plane crash
- The plane took off from a military base in Kayseri on a training flight and later crashed for as yet unknown reasons
ANKARA: A military training plane has crashed in central Turkiye, killing the two pilots aboard, the defense ministry said on Tuesday.
The plane took off from a military base in Kayseri on a training flight and later crashed for as yet unknown reasons, the ministry said.
Images on Turkish media showed black smoke billowing from a charred, half destroyed carcass of a plane in an agricultural field.
Firefighters, rescuers and police were working at the site, according to images by the state Anadalu agency.
“I express my condolences to our martyrs’ families, to our heroic army and to our nation,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Arab foreign ministers say important to deal with US Gaza proposal seriously, positively
- Biden on Friday presented what he labelled an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the conflict in Gaza
- Ministers stressed need to stop Israeli aggression on Gaza and end the humanitarian catastrophe it is causing
RIYADH: The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar and Egypt said on Monday it was important to “deal seriously and positively” with a proposal presented by US President Joe Biden that would lead to a ceasefire in Gaza.
Biden on Friday presented what he labelled an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the conflict in Gaza, free all hostages and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory without Hamas in power.
The foreign ministers met virtually to discuss the proposal and US-Qatari-Egyptian mediating efforts for a swap deal of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners that would lead to a permanent ceasefire and sufficient aid entry into Gaza, Saudi Press Agency said.
The foreign ministers of Jordan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia affirmed their support for these efforts.
The ministers stressed the need to stop Israeli aggression on Gaza, end the humanitarian catastrophe it is causing, and allow displaced people to return to their areas.
They called for a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the launch of a reconstruction process within the framework of a comprehensive plan to implement the two-state solution in accordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions and with specific timings and binding guarantees.
The ministers stressed that implementing the two-state solution, which includes an independent, sovereign Palestinian state along the lines of June 4, 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, is the way to achieve security and peace for all countries in the region.
